mom and dad's visit/turkey day

My Mom and Dad came to visit for the week of Thanksgiving, and it was SO good to see them. After the airport pick-up, we took them to Torchy's for some tacos. Brooke was excited for her Nay Nay and Papa to be here. 

That evening, Kevin and I were supposed to be at a Priest/Laurel activity, but I was trying to get out of it. Kevin needed to go in his new role as second counselor in the Stake YM Presidency, and I was supposed to be there as our ward's representative for the YW.   In the end, my parents encouraged us to go and were excited for some one-on-one time with the kids. It was actually really fun to go ice skating together. I don't think I had been skating since we were dating. It as also fun to hang out with these cute girls from my ward. 

Sunday was church, so I took a picture of these handsome fellows. 

I absolutely adore this picture of my parents with my kids. It's fun to see the love they have for each other. 

We did't have a ton of plans for the week, but had plenty of time to just play and chat. Brooke loved having someone to constantly play with, and Nay Nay is great at joining in the imaginative play. She has endless energy, which may be her kindergarten teacher shining through :)

Random pics of the kids playing with Kevin one evening...

On Thanksgiving Day, we spent the morning making preparations for our big meal. Mom helped me with the sweet potatoes, a loaded scalloped potato casserole, and rolls (Rhodes, haha). We had ordered a smoked turkey from a guy in our old ward, so that was all we really had to do.  Oh, and I put together a veggie platter. Oh, and Brooke helped with the sweet potatoes. She loves marshmallows, haha, so it was the perfect assignment for her. 

Before our guests arrived, I took a few pictures of my parents so I could help them create their Christmas card. I was happy with how this one turned out, even though my Dad thought it was ridiculous that I made him take his watch off since the black was distracting. 

I love my parents so much and am grateful that I was sent to them.  My patriarchal blessing states that my parents were specifically chosen to be my parents, and although I am sure this is the case for everyone, I feel like they have always known just the way to help me through my challenges.

Back to Thanksgiving, haha.  The decor...

My Mom brought these cool coffee filter leaves that we decorated earlier in the week.  Then for FHE, we wrote all the things we were thankful for.  After I wrote the words, Brooke pretended to write her own words.  She would scribble in lines as she spoke, and it was the cutest thing ever. It remained me of myself when I would pretend to write cursive as a kid.

Even though it was a beautiful day, Kevin wanted to have a fire to add to the ambiance...

Jerry and Beverly came for dinner, as well as one of Jerry's co-workers who lives in the area.  We had met her and her husband at Easter, and they are really nice people.  Sarah and Nick are both probably in their mid-thirties as well. I wasn't thrilled when Jerry emailed me about inviting her, but I understood why he did it.  Her husband had to work all day, and she would have been home alone. I just selfishly didn't want to feel like I had to entertain her when I had my parents here.  In the end, it was good, except for the fact that she said "Oh My God" all the time.  And Brooke corrected her A THOUSAND TIMES, haha!  The first time she said it, I saw Brooke kind of look at her, but didn't say anything.  After 5 times, Brooke finally said "We don't say that!  We say Oh My Goodness."  Sarah was sweet and just said, "You're right, I'll try to remember."  But when you are used to using a phrase, its hard to cut it out of your conversation.  So, Brooke kept correcting her.  I told Brooke to just worry about herself, but I was also proud that she stuck up for our family rule.  A few days later, I emailed Sarah to apologize for Brooke's constant corrections and let her know why I have coached Brooke on saying "goodness" instead of "God."  I didn't know what she knew about Mormonism, and I didn't want her to think that we don't say God because we don't believe in Him. I wasn't even sure how to explain my stance, but thanks to lds.org, I found a section about using utmost reverence when we speak about God.  I read the email to Kevin that night (after already sending it), and he said that it was a little condescending.  Well, it was already sent, so hopefully she wasn't offended. Two days later, she responded and said that she wasn't offended at all, and that it was something she wanted to work on.  It is what it is, I guess :)

The spread...

Sarah brought fresh corn and baked beans, Bev brought her famous broccoli salad, and Jerry marinated the tri-tip for us to grill up.  I was honestly a little disappointed in the smoked turkey though.  I have tasted his turkeys in the past, and they have always been fabulous, which is why I was fine with spending $80 on a huge turkey.  But, it was't really as great as I had hoped or remembered.  But, I didn't have to cook it, so that was pretty nice. 

Colby's favorite part was the corn, haha. 

The day after Thanksgiving Kevin had to work, but the rest of us went to the movie theatre to see Disney's  "Moana." The moment I took Colby out of his carseat, he was lunging for Papa.  My Dad was hesitant to carry him because his balance is a little off at times, but Colby kept trying to get to his Papa (which my Dad LOVED).  So, he gave in, and I stayed at his side in case he stumbled.

This was Colby's first theater experience, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  He sat still on my lap for the first 30 minutes or so, but then just wanted to get down.  I ended up staying in the hall with him for the remainder of the movie, but at least I was able to watch bits and pieces of the movie.  Colby just scooted himself up and down the sloped hallway.

Brooke loved the movie, and the popcorn.

A few other random pictures from the week: Merida (AKA Brooke) serenading us on the piano...

She loves her dress -ups that Nay Nay buys for her. I think she has 11 now!

On the way to the airport, we stopped at Iggy's for some ice cream.  Brooke was so excited to show them her favorite ice cream shop, and Colby is always up for a treat, haha.

It was a great week together, and since we don't have another trip scheduled to see them, it was hard to say goodbye.  They really are the best parents, and the best grandparents to my little ones!

family picture time

Do you know how amazing it is to have a friend who is also an amazing photographer??  It's pretty dang fantastic!  Danielle took our family pictures in the Spring, and has taken pictures of both Brooke and Colby.  She offered to take some Fall pictures, and I was super excited.  I wanted something different, and was really wanting a white fence, or white wall of some sort as the background.  We couldn't really find a location that matched my vision, but then I saw some pictures on pinterest that looked perfect.  The link took me to a photographer's website, but the location said something like "Tarrant County Ivy."  I sent Danielle the pics to see if she knew the location.  Sadly, she didn't, but suggested that I email the photographer.  I sent the email, but received a response that they only disclose locations once you book with their photographer.  Ugh!  I understand, but yet again, I wasn't in need of their photographer.  I relayed the message to Danielle, who put her super sleuth skills to work.   Within 15 minutes, she had figured it out...TCC Downtown :)  We weren't sure where exactly on campus the pictures were taken, so I decided to drive over and figure it out. I headed over to the main campus, but on the drive over, Colby fell asleep.  I was aimlessly driving around towards Sundance Square, when I saw the tall ivy wall from the pictures.  It was a few blocks from the main campus, and was part of their Health Sciences department.  Score!!  I parked, we walked the grounds, and were officially ready for picture day :)

Finding the outfits we wore was a whole other story, haha!  I originally started with a pleated navy and white polka dot dress for Brooke, and a navy plaid shirt for Colby, but the rest of the outfits were not coming together.  One night, as I was showing Kevin all the stuff I had purchased, he threw out the idea of doing more formal pictures since he liked his navy suit.  I liked the idea, but I also didn't want to start over!  I looked in Brooke's closet and found the jewel collar dress that I ordered from Crew Cuts last year, and decided that could be the jumping off point.  After a trip to Nordstrom Rack, I had a dress for me (on clearance even!), new shoes, and a tie for Kevin. Then I had to make two other trips to find a sweater for me, and one for Brookie.   I was just crossing my fingers that Kevin was a fan because I was seriously sick of shopping for outfits.  I texted Danielle that I was probably overthinking it, and she confirmed that I probably was, haha.  But i'm so happy that I listened to Kevin's suggestion (and that he liked the tie) because I love the slightly more formal pictures. 

I love the smile she captured on Colby.  And when Brooke laid her head on my lap, I told her to sit up for the picture.  Danielle told her that she could lay her head back down, and the picture was so precious.  It helped a lot that my kids know Danielle, and that she made us all feel so comfortable. 

I love my babies so much!  They are both at such a fun age right now, and I really hope that they will always want to be friends. The picture of Brooke and Kevin melts my heart.  She adores her Daddy, and she has him wrapped around her little finger. Like I mentioned, we took these at a Health Building.  When Brooke saw the 3 on the glass, she as so excited because "it was three, just like me."

I totally bribed Brooke with a gift that she could open at the end of pictures if she was a good sport.  Well, I felt like she earned that present, so I let her open a Belle Barbie ($7 at Kroger), which may or may not have made an appearance in the last picture or two, haha. 

The night before pictures, Kevin asked if we were going to do the ballon picture tradition with Colby.     We were in Brooke's room when he asked me, and he had been looking at her ballon pictures on the wall.  I told him that I figured Danielle could take some shots of just Colby as his official one year pictures, but that we probably didn't need to do the exact same thing we did for Brooke.  But then we both thought we might regret it, so on the way to pictures the next morning, we stopped at Party City for a gigantic balloon.  And I'm sure glad we did :)

Colby's picture is now proudly hanging in his room, just like Sissy's one year picture!

YWIE 2016

This year, we chose the theme "Be The Light" for Young Women in Excellence.  We decorated with a lot of white and gold, and lanterns. We kept refreshments simple (a huge cake from Costco), but the evening turned out so well!

We set up on Monday evening since nobody would be in the church that evening, and then Tuesday wouldn't be so chaotic. My Secretary borrowed all the lanterns and fairy lights from her MIL which was such a blessing since we had a lot of tables to decorate.

I saw an idea on pinterest to take pictures of each girl, so I bought wrapping paper with gold designs on it, and hung it in the YW room as the backdrop.  I had originally planned to take the pictures myself, but one of my counselors suggested asking one of our YW who was less active.  I followed her suggestion, and it was totally inspired.  Not only did that make her feel obligated to come for a few weeks in a row (to get everyone photographed), but it gave me an opportunity to recognize her at YWIE since her mom sometimes feels that she is not included even though she rarely comes (that's another story). We placed the pictures one each table, and I loved how it turned out.  Brooke was in charge of sprinkling the gold stars on each table and she LOVED her duty :)

We had a few display tables for projects, but we didn't have many girls bring things.  I get it that lots of the projects don't have something to display, but I was hoping for a few more.  I gave the girls the option of whether they wanted to display something, present something, or perform something.  We had a pretty nice variety, which was good.  Our main speaker was Sister Parr from our ward, and she did such an incredible job.  I seriously love her, and asked her to email me her message because it was so great.  We had a few girls sing, play the piano, and tell about their experiences in earning their medallion, etc.  Although this calling takes SO much of my time, I really do love it and hope that I am doing a good enough job for these girls!  It's a lot of responsibility and I worry about them a lot.  They face challenges every day at school, but their strength and testimony is seriously amazing.  I am sure that I learn more from them than they do from me, haha.

At the end of the evening, everyone helped clean up, and we were driving away by 9 pm.  Hooray!

the party

After scouring pinterest for party ideas, I finally settled on a mustache/gentleman theme. I intended to make the invitations myself, but in the end, went with an easy shop to simplify my life.  I took Colby to the park to get a cute picture of him in his bowtie. I literally had to take 40 pictures of him to get one where he was somewhat still. He kept turning himself in circles, and I was making a fool of myself trying to get him to smile.  The things we do for a good picture, right?

I found cute napkins and mustache whistles from Oriental Trading Company, and I even had a merchandise voucher, so it was a win-win!

Kevin really wanted party hats for some reason, haha, so I picked up a bunch of those at Party City, along with some punching balloons.  I loved those as a kid!

We rented a pavilion at Katherine Rose Park in Mansfield.  We go to that park quite a bit with our play group, and it is SO huge, and the pavilions are perfect.  When we showed up to set up, another party was still at our pavilion.  I immediately freaked out because I didn't want to be scrambling at the last minute as guests arrived (which is what happened at Brooke's party last year!).  It looked like the party was over, but everyone was just sitting around.  Kevin went over to talk with them, and they were so sweet and started moving out right away.  They had rented a bounce house as well, and were waiting for the company to come pick it up.  I got busy with set-up, and Jerry and Bev had come early to help us as well.  After about 15 minutes, Kevin came over and asked if I had a check.  I told him that I did, but asked what he needed it for.  He said, "I'm gonna rent the bounce house and all the tables and chairs."  I just laughed, and when he told me the price, I thought it seemed pretty fair.  So, we rented the bounce house and it ended up being so perfect because it occupied all the little kids so the parents could just chat and not chase toddlers all over the playground area. 

The Peacocks also showed up early and helped with the final touches while Kevin went to pick up the pizzas.  We took a few pictures of the cousins together before the party started.

And one family picture :)  I was in love with those mustache balloons I found on Amazon. You seriously can find anything on Amazon, and I love it!

I didn't take enough pictures of the guests, but I did manage a few pictures of the littles.  I am so thankful for our friends who support us and our kids.

Colby was a big fan of that bounce house!

Right before we had cupcakes, I handed out the mustache chocolate suckers so we could take a group picture.  I have had a chocolate mustache mold forever, but had never used it.  I bought it with the intent of making something for the YW I'm sure.  Anyway, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  The only downside was that you could only make 3 at a time, and I needed to make 50 suckers!!  So, I bought another mold that allowed 4 at a time, and used both to get to work.  It still took forever, but in the end I'm glad that I did it.  Guests had a choice of mustache style in a few colors (black, brown, white, and yellow). I love how the picture turned out...

When I see this picture, it really makes me grateful for the friends and family we have. The Myers weren't about to come, but the rest of the original Arlington gang was there, along with new ward friends, and some family.  They all show so much love towards our family, and I couldn't be more thankful for their influence in our lives!

Then it was time for cupcakes!  This was by no means his first exposure to cake and sweets, but he loved it nonetheless.

I had to help him get into the cake, but then he smashed it around till it was a giant mess.  And then I took pictures of course.

Papa sat down next to him, and Colby went to town "feeding" him pieces of the smashed cake. 

And last, but not least, present time!  I debated whether or not to open gifts at the park since it would basically be me opening the gifts, but I decided to do it because I felt kind of ungrateful if we didn't.  Man, this kid was spoiled!  He literally received SO many gifts, and all the kids wanted to help and show the present that THEY gave Colby.  It was all a bit overwhelming for him, but fun too.

The Peacocks gave him this ride-on slug, which we loves!

The party went from 4-6, and then it was clean-up time.  We had SO much leftover pizza, so we tried to pawn that off on the guests as they left.  We also served fruit skewers, and had quite a few of those leftover as well.  When we arrived home that evening, we unloaded the car, and the house was a total wreck.  I had made a huge mess in the kitchen that morning frosting all the cupcakes, and it had been a little chaotic getting everything together to leave the house, so it was just a mess.  I really hate coming home to a messy house, but sometimes that is just the way it is. Parties are a good excuse, right?  Kevin and I put the kids to bed, and then spent some time cleaning up, then climbed into bed and looked at our pictures from the day.  We felt pretty good about how everything turned out, but I'm not sure if we will continue to throw big parties for every birthday, haha.  It's always a lot more work than I anticipate, and I wonder if we are fully appreciating the birthday baby when we have so many other things to worry about?

 We have loved our first year with Colby boy, and look forward to what his second year brings!

colby's first birthday

A few days before Colby's birthday, Brooke and I were planning how we wanted the day to go.  We decided to fill his crib with balloons in the morning, so that is what we did.  He thought it was pretty funny.  Then Brooke wanted to get in the crib with him, haha. 

We had a pretty normal morning, and I think even had to run a few errands to get ready for his weekend birthday party. We picked up some Chick-fil-A on the way home, and picnicked outside on the driveway. You can never go wrong with CFA fries!

I let him open up his gift from Kimmie and Josh since I knew it was a bubble machine.  He absolutely loved it!

That night, I made spaghetti for dinner (I think?  I remember wanting to make something he really loved.  This is why you shouldn't wait 4 months to blog about your baby's birthday!) and Colby opened the rest of his presents.  We gave him a plush puppy dog sleeping bag, Jeffrey and Madi gave him a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse tool set, and Nay Nay and Papa gave him a pirate ship.  Him and Brooke were both super excited about the new toys.  Brooke said to him, "Colby, you can be in charge of the sleeping bag, and I'll be in charge of these toys." Hahaha!

Oh, and the cute chair was from Grandma and Papa (J & B). They started a fun tradition of giving one of those chairs to each grandkid on their first birthday. 

Overall, I think our little guy had a good first (actual) birthday, and sure felt the love!

colby-12 months

AHHHH, how is my baby 12 months old already?? It really has been a crazy fast year, but I'm in love with this adorable, happy, little boy.  He is the sweetest thing, and although he also has a feisty side, he loves to be with people and he is so friendly and happy when we're out and about. 

Things to note about this month: he started saying "Mom" instead of "Mama", he teases A LOT (He will pretend to give you something, then pull it away!), started saying "Uh-oh" and "Hi", makes a few animal sounds ("Ooh ooh ahh ahh" for a monkey and "baa baa" for a sheep), gives super slobbery kisses, outgrew his bath sling, and did his star stacker independently.

He was a good sport at his one year check-up, and stayed completely still during his entire exam!  Dr. Joki kept commenting that that never happened for a one year old check-up.  It totally surprised me because even trying to change his diaper has become a lot like wrestle-mania.  Colbster is delayed in Motor Skills (not walking yet), but Dr. Joki wasn't too concerned, and neither was I.   Brooke didn't walk until 14 months, so he might be following in his sister's footsteps.  Literally, haha!

12 month stats: 22 pounds and 32 inches (60th and 99th percentile respectively)